


After Fall

by MrProphet



Category: Paradise Lost - John Milton
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 12:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10697130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	After Fall

And so it comes that these, the brightest stars,  
That e’er did shine in Heaven’s firmament  
To base and brazen quibbles are reduced  
Where once with purpose singular and true  
They did declare in legion ‘gainst the Lord  
And rise in arms to face all Heaven’s host.  
How bold they were in days now past, to stand  
Shoulder to shoulder, in purpose as one  
To face the very wrath of the almighty  
And suffer to trouble his walls with war.  
Yet now, with craven and self-serving counsel,  
Do they one with another strive and rail  
‘Gainst all sense, good or bad, for reason none  
Save to be the last to speak and loudest  
And to outshine all other lights within  
Their foetid and Stygian underworld.  
And yet among this high and petty host  
One stands in silent, splendid isolation.  
No argument he offers; makes no speech  
Though once above all his voice would be heard.  
Lucifael, the shining Morning Star  
Yet Fallen now from the summit of grace  
And as Lucifer only to be known  
He stands aloof, a veil upon his light  
And turns at last his back upon the host  
Who bend their ears to Satan’s honey voice  
And in the dark of Pandæmonium  
Fresh schemes unfold for sake of vanity.  
Lucifer it was who in heaven’s halls  
Most strongly did declaim against the Lord  
Suing in his pride, his own path to choose  
And the right to fall from grace demanding.  
What sees he now upon his comrades’ brows,  
‘Pon which wouldst settle crowns and coronets  
To dub themselves knights, princes, lords and kings.  
Does not this cavalcade of self-acclaim  
Appeal to he who stood against the Lord  
And spoke unto Him as to an equal  
E’en tasking his God to heed unto him?  
Should not one so mighty in his hubris  
Take pleasure in great pomp and vain titles?  
So some might think, and yet he turns away  
And out from Pandæmonium proceeds  
To seek first solitude then society  
More amenable to his great spirit.  
For while the pride of Lucifael was great  
It was in true idealistic zeal  
That his revolt against the Lord was born.  
And e’en in time shall it be seen by all  
That in this as in all was Lucifael  
The sinister hand of the Almighty  
Serving to test His sublime creation  
And to lead from Heaven those dark angels  
Whose presence there was no longer welcome.  
And e’en now in this abyssal kingdom  
Dominion doth the bright angel eschew.


End file.
